Chapter Twelve : Journey Into The Lair Of Bast

So shall we say the day continued to become even more interesting once we arrived back at the mansion of Starving Marvin. What could have been a relaxing day spent celebrating our success with the other members of Swami Donnie’s crew ended up becoming a day filled death defying leaps and almost our entire group meeting its end. I will take the blame on myself for while after meeting the older bathrobe wearing Flaky Luke, the average suit wearing Fast Freddy and the six foot six mountain of suit wearing intelligence named Mongo I could call it a bit of distraction. Since sadly Morgan had touched Stone of Tongues and entered the Realm within the Stone to deal with some personal matter of his own he did not even say why he was leaving but just left. Perhaps he was upset over having revealed his feelings for me which to be honest was still something that my mind was working over as well. I had never had in my life a solitary relationship since every faith I believed in directly or indirectly were comfortable with the concepts of open casual relationships even once married and in truth the gender did not even really matter. So while my beloved Nialla and I had become close and she had a piece of my heart there was still room for Morgan and Erik for that matter and working on getting them all on the same canvas which I was more than willing to allow my own perfect body to become was going to be the challenge would come in. Since I loved a challenge I was in good spirits and I was focusing a good deal of my time that day on other objectives mainly after having mastered the common language of Emerald I needed to make sure I helped the others get up to speed. Nialla who had been working with Scrounger was able to pick up the quickest but and the end of the day everyone I was glad to say had a working knowledge of the language. My second objective was learning more about the world and finding books that would enable to catch up on the technology of the world as well as enable me to better blend in. The last thing on my mind was learning how to drive the vehicles they called cars since there were an entire garage of them at hand. It was all about self sufficiency and while the new members of Swami Donnie’s crew had information for us as well as the Lamp of Al-Hazred it was our decision to ignore wisdom and decide to recon the Ves Center in the Ves Beach District of Central City that led instead to the near death of everyone including myself. Like I have said I have only myself to blame and perhaps others may see it differently I have learned my lesson the hard way as I will make clear for all to see.

As we had arrived back at the rented mansion of Starving Marvin in the upscale neighborhood of Lake Forest everyone for the most part were in good spirits. It was on our return that we meet the remaining members of Swami Donnie’s crew as I have come to call it. There was Flaky Luke who wore a bathrobe and slippers and was an older human perhaps in his sixties. Then there was the young agile young lad named Fast Freddie. And last but not least there was the mountain of a man who stood around six foot six named Mongo who I was to find out was actually the most educated man in Swami Donnie’s entire operation. We ordered lunch and Morgan had decided to withdraw from my presence I had a feeling he might be going thru some issues regarding his previous conversation with Buerick but if so he was an Elf and it was for him and Buerick a to work out any issues they might have. While we waited for lunch I pretty much spent most of my time fawning over Nialla while Swami Donnie had informed us that Fluky Luke had information for us regarding how hot of an item it seemed we had become. So I of course paid attention but truly with Nialla and Erik in the room I mainly just listened for the facts of the information that was being relayed by old Fluky. Of the three major groups that we were aware of that were looking in to us and those being the Ves, Red Menace and the Psi Corp it could have been worse. It seemed the operations of the Psi Corp which Fluky Luke seemed to believe were tied directly to the Hub which we had learned were in reality their own organization were for the most part a mystery to him. While the Ves were under the impression that we were operatives of the Rebel Ves an organization that while still Ves were not exactly hunted but tolerated since they were still Ves. So in other words as long as we did not make problem for the Ves then they were unlikely to make problems for us. Now on the other hand the Red Menace well they were outright hunting us. They had even gone so far as to have descriptions of us put together and had placed a bounty on our capture. It also seemed that they would be eliciting the aid of the Fascists and a group of scientists known as the Bad Doctors to assist them. It seemed their intelligence network had been tracking our progress all the way from Defender Island to Central City. After further discussion with Flaky Luke we were able to confirm that the Red Menace were not really looking for the same items as we were because they had a similar purpose. They were in reality supposed to be only a Labor Union but in reality they were a power hungry organization bent on world domination. It was also made clear that after the discovery of the plutonium or nuclear energy quickly led to nuclear bombs which in turn had made the concept of conventional warfare impossible since every faction now had the power to destroy this world several times over a more subtle means of control would be needed. Which was why the Red Menace were determined to use whatever means necessary to accomplish that goal and with over five thousand (5,000) Mythos magic using members the odds for now were not in our favor. The saving grace for now was that they really did not have a great deal of information about us or our abilities and we were for now not their number one priority. This of course led to me asking Swami Donnie about who I could contact to gain more information about the world in general and he advised that I first consult with Mongo since he was the most educated member of his crew and would be able to best assist me. I also asked if they could arrange for our fake identification paperwork before the day was out and he let me know it would not be a problem. I of course asked him for two additional sets identification for everyone just in case we heated up on the Red Menace or any other scale for that matter. He departed to make the arrangements and we were left to discuss matters of our education with Mongo.

It was interesting because just as Mongo was getting ready to begin our introduction to Emerald education Shiron opened his Backpack of Containment and emptied out an entire collection of books on a vast variety of subjects which along with the books that were already on hand at Starving Marvin’s mansion were sufficient for me to officially begin my education. So while taking to time to make sure everyone had a working knowledge of the spoken language since it was important to me to minimize our dependence on the Stone of Tongues I also focused on learning just how different this world was from Hyboria. I cannot begin to explain how invigorating it was to find information with which I was not familiar. For while I had trained my genius intellect to such a degree that I literally had knowledge of everything Hyborian and beyond here was new knowledge to be gained and absorbed which honestly was almost more exciting then sex not I did say almost. So while the other continued to talk with the others and I vaguely remember Shiron wanting to know more about the Rebel Ves and how they were formed in addition to asking about their leadership I was not really paying much attention. What I was paying attention to was to me far more interesting namely Emerald and when I say Emerald I mean its knowledge Business, Civics, Current Events, Earth and Life Sciences, History, Physical Sciences, Popular Culture, Technology, Theology and even knowledge of the wisdom of the Street was laid out before me and when I was finished I needed a little exercise and I had just the kind of activity that could include everyone driving lessons. Everyone of the crew helped with our driving lessons and within a few hours while I paid little attention to the others I was driving like a professional and ready to take my skills to the road if ever the need arose. I also noticed something that had fascinated me before with my own eyes some of the cars in the lot were composed of Mithral. It seemed that the tall buildings which I had learned they called skyscrapers were composed of Mithral as well as cars since it was their most lightweight and abundant metal. I knew I would have to ask the Lamp about this later which lead to other discoveries which I shall not spoil here. I had advised to the others after our lessons were coming to an end that now might be a good time to confer with the Lamp of Al-Hazred since it seemed to be attuned to us in some way and I hoped it would offer us some insight into which item on our list we might go after first.

So we retired to Nialla’s and my room along with the Lamp of Al-Hazred in order to gain additional insight into the artifacts and spells that we needed to acquire to create and enhance the power of the Lightning Gun. I will admit the Morgan’s disappearing act was starting to get on my nerve I just hoped that when he chose to once again grace us with his presence he would be relaxed and in a better mood. Nialla and I had been busy putting together a list that we could work on systematically our next move would be to figure an order in which to begin. Now what turned out to be interesting was the Lamp actually carried on a conversation and what it had to reveal was quite informative. As it would find out the Lamp claimed to have been created by us in an alternate timeline using some kind of powerful wish which turned the Stone of Tongues into the Lamp which we would need to acquire this time around on the temporal wheel so to speak. The Lamp claimed that we had all been sad and in truth the only saving grace as far as I was concerned was that we were all together when we had created the Lamp. On the other had a bit of sad news was nature of Mythos magic which it seemed required the soul energy of another living being or one of the mystical devices that duplicated the effects of life energy. Well that did confirm at least one advantage we had over the magi of this world for they all according to the Lamp used Mythos magic of course the downside when we did locate the spells we would need we would need the souls or the soul energy devices to power the spells. Which lead to the issue of the spells we would need which it seemed we would have to find once we located mages or the mages who were reputed to hold items that we sought. As it turned out the order which the Lamp suggested seemed to be based on enabling us to acquire devices held by weaker individuals before we moved up the latter to the more impressive item holders. So with the Lamps help the order was laid out for us the Wish Projector which was held by the Central City Gang known as the Magicians. We were to follow up with the Orb of Sight and Rebreather’s held by the Green Men of the City of Industry which ironically Nialla seemed to already have a Rebreather cutesy of the Star Lord De’Moulay that had been dispatched by the group during my cleansing and rebirth. Next on the list were to be Orb of Penetration and the Great Race Stasis Cube held by the Stolen Eye Wizards of which there were two using the same name one male and one female who were rumored to hang out in Shore City while the rest Nialla and I added to our list. We had before us quite the path to adventure and Shiron had mentioned interest in the Rebel Ves and the Society of Matt which ironically were next on the list rumored to be holding one of the Lightning Gun blueprints as well as a Jar of Iben Gazi Powder and the Shaggai Nerve Whip. Which was how we ended up breaking up our little session and rejoining the others in order to gain additional information about the Rebel Ves.

After speaking with both Mongo as well as Fluky Luke many of Shiron’s questions were answered regarding what was known about the Rebel Ves. It seemed a mysterious woman known as Misses B, as well as Queen B which most believed to stand for Beauty a typical Ves name was the leader of not only the Rebel Ves but the Society of Matt. Looking back I might have made the connection if it were not for my own vanity since I had take the name Beauty for my Ves alias and now even had identification paperwork to prove it. As it turned out I did not make the connection that we might end up dealing in reality with an avatar of the Goddess Bast. Add to that the fact that Mongo let us know that on that very evening Queen B was hosting a musical talent contest. So when Shiron had asked if anyone could sing starting with myself I was of course forward with letting him as well as the others that I indeed could. I reminded him of my sylvan melody which I had sang just the other day in the Realm within the Stone. Well what cause the rest of the day to flow so smoothly for me was when both Nialla and Erik were willing to sing and not only that but with the aid of records which played music provided by Mongo we were able to practice and rehearse. I will be honest the chance to work so closely with my beloved Nialla and my obsession Erik had more than a little to do with my interest and to be honest if I do say so myself after a little time the others were amazed with how effectively we worked together as a group. The fact it Shiron’s plan to attend the talent show that evening was actually only a means to an end for me at the time. Buerick had made it clear that he was not interested in coming along that night since he informed us that he exhausted almost all of his drudical power during our encounter with the Glaaki. Shiron tried to assure him that we would be going out on the town to gather information and not really on a mission that would require the use of our mystical or combat abilities. I will be honest it worried me since without Buerick a number of things could happen. First off the mansion next door to the one rented by Starving Marvin was now occupied by guests that we knew nothing about which could be bad news for Buerick if they aid him a visit while we were gone. Second without Morgan with us if thing went wrong while we were as they say sightseeing than we could find ourselves up a creek without a paddle or in reality a Stone of Tongues with which we might us to escape danger if Buerick was able to shape into a form that would allow him to escape whatever danger we might be facing. It was these concerns that lead me to making a plea to Buerick to come with us just in case and thankfully for all of our normally stoic but in truth compassionate Buerick agreed to come with us. I of course thanked him profusely and would have been willing to thank his in other ways as well if he ever desired and I wondered if it was my fey nature that I could sense growing within me that was causing the attraction for even now I was beginning to feel a connection to the natural world that was so invigorating I truly do not have words describe it. Now add that to my growing attraction to Buerick which I have to admit was more sense driven he was starting to as they say grow on me. Believe it or not just in time Morgan decided to grace us with his presence and as I had expected with no explanation as to what he had been doing. I have given up trying to predict Morgan since I know quite often he is guided by his insight I just wish his insight had led him into Nialla’s and my room the previous night. I digress of course since when he returned he had once again assumed the guise of the fearsome mysterious ninja. I know he seems like an assassin to most people and to be honest I believe it’s his kind heart as well as his indomitable will that and his commitment to my Mother that have kept him away from that path and perhaps his love for me. Which of course I was beginning to realize could possibly become a problem in the future depending on his philosophy. So after working up fresh disguises for everyone and helping improve others we were ready to make our debut and I almost forgot to mention Queen B was staging her auditions at you guessed the Ves Center in Central City in the middle of the Ves Beach District. So while Nialla had mentioned she was eager to pay a visit to our friendly neighborhood Shoggoth for his part in trying to turn us into snacks for the Glaaki which we were going to put on our agenda for the morrow we hopped into the cars and along Swami Donnie’s crew we headed out for our meeting with the Queen B.

It was a short drive well like two hours to the Ves Beach District within Central and soon we were pulling into a crowded area where I could see the Queen B’s little audition had indeed drawn quite the crowd. I decided to of course cast another message spell to enable us to all remain within contact. Swami Donnie let us know that he and the others with the exception of Mongo who with a little work and a tussle of his hair was able to fit in with the whole young band set. Mongo told us he did not mind coming with us which just proves to me that Queen’s B’s disguise was just that good or our allies were not as informed at they thought otherwise there is no way I think he would have been willing to join us. He was able to use his street skill to help us move to up in line as it looked from the size of the line and from commotion I could hear that the auditions were scheduled to last for at least two days. It was even being advertised as a Battle of the Bands two solid days of music the likes of which had never been heard with the area before. Ok I will be honest this was my first belief that things could be heading in the wrong direction but I kept it to myself. When a few moments after being in line we were asked to step away and enter a different elevator I actually mentioned to everyone that I really felt going into the elevator was a bad idea. Since the last time something happened like this it had lead to a trap not that I was really feeling that it would be beyond my skills I was just making what felt like to me an obvious point. The assistant told us that he had just been told by a higher up to send us up the express elevator and if we wanted to continue then we needed to take the elevator or bow out of the competition. I suggested that we leave but Shiron seemed confident either that or he was actually looking forward to a confrontation and to be honest I really don’t know the answer to that riddle. So it was that we entered the elevator and shall I say things decided to get interesting quickly would be an understatement if there ever was one. We had been in the elevator for only a few moments when suddenly the elevator came to a jarring stop we were plunged into magical darkness and which I will admit was wildly ironic for other reasons. On a side note my beloved Nialla had just recently altered her pact with the dark entities that grant her abilities and had abandoned her ability to pierce magical darkness in favor of cloaking her presence from sight. I am sure she was perhaps more than a little perturbed thankfully Erik being true to his draconic heritage called out to the darkness taunting whoever had drawn the darkness to face him. Thankfully his ploy worked for suddenly there was a blur of movement and he was struck several times by a sword and the wounds were so grievous I believe only Shiron would have been still standing. Moving with the deftness of his namesake Morgan moved upon what I realized from the glow surrounding the creature was a Death Knight and delivered a telling blow of his own. I will admit I was more than a little surprised but I focused my will and cast a haste spell to assist the other for what I had hoped might be a quick battle. The reality was the exact opposite of what actually happened, everyone else who tested themselves against the Death Knight failed to even put a dent in his armor. My mind was racing coming up with a plan of action for while I knew I had little to combat undead directly there were a few tricks I had up my summon for if necessary. Meanwhile Shiron had struck up a conversation with the Death Knight and asked what he wanted and he replied magic. Now how it came to pass that Nialla had believed that she could feed the creature with her eldritch bolts and somehow gain control of it I still don’t know. The Death Knight had replied that if all of the casters fed it our magical energy he would leave us be which had lead to Nialla telling the Death Knight that she could feed it forever. Well that was all I needed to hear was my beloved getting ready to unwilling sacrifice herself and not even realize it so channeling all of my magical power into one of my few abjuration spell I poured all of my love for Nialla into my dispel magic spell and I was able to overwhelm the Knight’s magic and cause him to flee the elevator to parts unknown. Shiron looked to me and told me good job while I was busy messaging to Nialla trying to figure out what in the world she had been thinking. I told the others that I had not destroyed the Death Knight and I once again advised that we depart and I was going to push the down button but alas Shiron felt confident that all would work out and as I looked around all I could think was perhaps a few people had to die before anyone would start listening to me. Either that or no was else was paying attention so as we continued up and the doors opened we were greeted by a large room of to be honest what looked like thralls and trust me I know the look. A cute man walked up to us and said and I quote “ You are not Garbage” which lead to a few moments of confusion. Well we had taken a few moments to clean up and while I could see that Erik had healed himself Morgan had went to his side to confirm he was alright. Regarding the top thrall I tried to charm using my innate ability and I was able to confirm that when my power failed that he was indeed someone else’s plaything. I asked the thrall who was garbage and he replied an all girl band of eight who they had expected to be the moment’s entertainment. The lead thrall looked back to a throne in the back of the room to a beautiful woman who was wearing a veil who spoke and said indeed and who are you. I was busy looking around the room at the thirty plus other thralls who seemed to be completely at her beck and call while Erik took a moment and introduced us as Dragon Firearr and started to sing a few bars of one of the songs we had rehearsed. I will be honest for being put on the spot he really delivered so much so that I will admit I was for a moment smitten once again by his impressive presence. I recovered quickly which is of course what I always do years of practice after all and explained to who I could tell had to be Queen B by pointing to Nialla and then myself that we were the band and the others were our manage and personal security. Now I should mention about this point that Morgan told us through the message spell that our friend the fleeing Death Knight was standing behind and to the side of Queen B. Shiron seemed to notice something that I failed to notice and his eyes almost glowed and he told me through the message spell that the woman on the throne was a power who could even now not doubt hear us. She took that moment to rise and with it an emanation of power washed freshly over the room and I could tell that Morgan, Mongo and Erik were suddenly smitten into inaction. To be honest I was not shocked when Queen B who I now realized was an avatar of Bast vanished and the Death Knight moved into our midst intent on claiming Nialla as well as our magic. At about what seemed like a silent command everyone else in the room including Mongo started to flee the room. I realizing that while our chances were not the best I had confidence in Shiron and Erik. Well basically Shiron’s ability to combat it like a dervish of death and Erik ability to both out harm and to bear the brunt of the Knight attacks like a noble gold dragon he revered so I cast a haste spell to quicken them. Nialla continued to blast it with her eldritch blasts but they were like flies to the Death Knight who seemed for the moment tougher than the Glaaki and seemed intent on laying claim to Nialla. Nialla realizing that she would no doubt be the next target as Erik tried to move in order to place himself in the Death Knight path vanished within the Stone of Tongues and entered the Realm within the Stone. She made it just in time actually for within moment the Death Knight unleashed a black ball of burning death and I could tell as I felt a great deal of the fire wash off of my skin that we had Erik to thank for his draconic powers were being brought into the fray to protect us. The Death Knight spoke a horrid curse that unnerved almost everyone of us and to be honest I was surprised I was able to resist it’s power at the time I felt it had to be the presence of the brave and powerful Erik. While the Death Knight looked to Buerick and we could all tell where he planned to attack next Morgan seemed to be in complete panic and fright I had never seen him so rattled and he ran for a door and opened it and vanished from view for the door opened out into the sky. Well so much for my protector I realized and to be honest I never really thought of him as a protector more like a suave dashing roguish figure out of my dreams but that is a fantasy and not part of the narrative so I shall move on. I realize my Mother might have had plans for Morgan I was just pissed that she had never shared them with me so as Buerick cast a spell to strengthen Shiron and the next moment to shape shifted into a giant eagle and flew into the sky more than thirty feet out of the room out the very door that Morgan had just opened I realized that the time had come to pull out the last card I had been hiding up my skirt or actually on my feet. I will admit I had a few items I never mentioned before when I was telling this tale from the view of Markessa De’Mornae and the item I was to use next was one such item. I called upon the power of my Dimensional Stride Boots and teleported to Buerick location and willed myself into the Stone of Tongues. I realize that what I was doing was extremely dangerous for if I had failed to focus my will correctly or actually my force of personality as I channeled druidical energy to enter the Stone I could have ended up falling to my death with no way to save myself. As I appeared with the tree house within the Realm within the Stone I could see Nialla and she had summoned her beautiful all light consuming wings of darkness and her eyes glowed with a fire that told me she had enhanced her vision. So yeah I was turned on but our friends were dying or soon going to be close to it so I focused Nialla’s attention to the arch when I was really wishing to be drawing her attention somewhere else. As we watched Shiron had summoned his will and had indeed become a dervish of death and destruction but what was a wonder to behold was that he seemed be for the most part completely ineffective. We watched as Erik was struck again and again by the Knight of Death who seemed determined to deprive him of his life force and as he heroically and boldly breathed fire back at the foul undead as he called for Shiron to withdraw out the window while he held it off. Erik had not been exaggerating when he had told me that when the time came we would see what he was capable of and he was not holding back for if not for his presence I am sure one of us would have been lost. They together made a dive for the window and began a plummet to the street below and while I was not sure what it was at the time I had a feeling that Erik might soon be defying gravity if I had been correct in my assumption in the past that he was more than human and in reality a silver brow descended from Silver Dragons then he might just be able to save Shiron as well. What happened next was something that I almost still find hard to believe for the Death Knight which seemed angered that his prey had almost all escaped moved to the open door and hurled a ball of dark flaming death down on Morgan who seemed to be almost burned to death he had been trying to speed climb it seemed and I could not tell what happened to him next but I could see he was plummeting to his death. Buerick moving with grace and determination flew toward him I figured since he was not unconscious Buerick must have figured he could will him into the Realm where Nialla and I would be able to tend to him. Somehow he must have misjudged for he flew right into a window and knocked himself out I looked to Nialla who had I already informed to be waiting for a moment like this that now was her time I held her before she left and kissed her passionately and told her be careful and she was gone. Buerick and Morgan meanwhile were both plummeting to their death it seemed that Erik had overextended himself for it seemed that he had tried to catch Shiron and not doubt activate his ability to defy gravity and it must have failed for they were soon separated. I will give it to Shiron for quick thinking for while he is a small man he was just small enough and it’s fortunate that the books he had emptied out of his Backpack of Containment which I had placed in mine must have left it mostly empty for he managed to contort himself within his bag and pull the knapsack closed behind him. Nialla arrived and willed Morgan into the Realm with me while Scrounger flew out of his bag and cast a heal spell from a scroll that Nialla had been holding and Buerick snapped out of his stupor. Erik managed to call forth his power and suddenly he was floating like a feather toward the ground while Nialla and Scrounger returned to the Realm within the Stone. Buerick flew to the ground and picked up the Backpack within his beak and Erik landed near him and which time as I could see they were starting to draw attention I cast an invisibility spell upon myself and projected myself out of the Realm. As I emerged I messaged to Buerick and Erik as I cast an invisibility sphere around all of us so it would seem that we had teleported that I had turned us all invisible and for Erik to enter the stone I also informed Buerick that I would cast a separate spell upon him so he could escape the area and gain enough height to be beyond notice of the locals. As I looked onto the street I could see we had caused quite the commotion and I could see in the distance a few red cars no doubt the Red Menace trying to reach the area. As I cast the spell on Buerick I asked him to be careful of course and thanked him once again for coming and I vanished within the Stone of Tongues into Realm within the Stone. I could see that Erik had been able to assist Morgan who it seemed had somehow managed to jam his healing elixir into his jaw and once he had reset it the remaining concoction had poured into his throat and healed him. Shiron looked dismayed and defeated as he exclaimed how he had never expected things would go as they had and seemed glad to know we had all escaped well with the exception of Mongo I informed him. The others did not look that much better well Erik of course still seemed to exude that aura of confidence in even the worst of times and Nialla ever a shining dark light in dark times was a welcome presence that reminded me that even from within darkness can emerge beauty, love and light. So as we pulled ourselves together as Buerick flew us back to the mansion I tried to hope for the best but in reality I could only think that we might have ruined our chances for the Ves Beach District to be a place of safety as the Moonbeast Commander had advised and we might now be returning to an ambush at any moment from our new next door neighbors who if our luck continued as it had would be Psi-Corp or Red Menace. On the bright side Mongo may have been able to escape unnoticed it but I really doubted it I mean really if the Death Knight had any kind of memory or if the avatar of Bast returned then his goose as they say was cooked and he had enough information to lead them right to us at Starving Marvin’s rented mansion. Well alright not really that much of a chance for a bright side so in reality it was looking like we would need to inform Swami Donnie of the situation and if we were lucky his crystal would enable him to shed some light on the subject and perhaps give him some insight on how to avoid disaster. Perhaps Swami Donnie who had shared with me how he had come to gain his interesting abilities after an accident brain surgery and awaking from a coma which was the origin of how he had gained his name would be the goose that laid the golden egg which would provide the riches that would aid us in unraveling the mystery before us before it once again consumed us. So as conclude this entry I am left with the realization that I may need to begin preparations to acquire the Lightning Gun in order to use it to give us yet another shot unless from this moment forward I can convince the others to start acting on the same page. Which means it looks like friends or not it’s time to start living up to my immoral reputation as Elysia Brenna the Beguiler.